Legends beat Shanghai Scottish SC 3-0
It was a beautiful day on Sunday and we had lined up a large squad of veteran players. The last time we played Scottish SC, they equalized in the final minutes and the game ended up 2-2.
We opted to start with 3 defenders in the back to try taking control of the midfield and using the space on the wings. Scottish SC on its side decided to sit deep and played on the counter with two fast players. Jerome got the taste of it when his opponent in the first two minutes overran him. As he could only stop him with a foul, he got rewarded with a yellow card. Besides it, we got a couple of shots in the 1st 20 minutes and Romain came close when his volley hit the crossbar.
On a free-kick by Nikko, the Scotland goalie dropped the ball… Haroun was alert to intercept and the ball fell to the feet of Nicolas who happy scored and gave us the 1-0 lead.
In the 2nd 20 minutes, we didn’t play well. Scotland was patiently waiting for a slip-up in our defense and we didn’t create much as most shots were off target.
In the 3rd 20 minutes, we changed tactics as Bob opted to go back to 4-4-2. It worked as we started moving the ball around and the Scotts were getting tired running after the ball. Clement our goalie had to save us 1 or 2 times despite our dominance. Tomas finally got us a penalty after an opponent clipped his foot. Our Captain Haroun stepped up to take it and gave us a deserved 2-0 lead.
In the last 20 minutes, we kept dominating the game as we took most of the possession. Freek came in to play upfront with Nikko and they were trying to rip the Scotland defense apart. After a long ball from Sylvain, Freek took the ball at the edge of the penalty area… shoot with his outside right foot to see the ball flying over the Scotland keeper. The goal was too good to be true so rumors started to fly around about match-fixing… Freek denied in block!!!
[ SPL V ] Shanghai Lions FC 3-0 Shanghai Scottish SC
A great team performance with 3 points and a clean sheet. The large squad did help us through the game as it was a bit hot and we are still working on our fitness. Well done Legends! After the match, some of us celebrated the victory at our sponsor Senso Italian Dining.
Cheers
Happy Freek
